This application claims the priority of foreign application no. 98035971.7 filed in Germany on Jan. 30, 1998, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a slatted sunroof for a motor vehicle, with slats that are lifted and spaced apart from one another when the roof is opened with said slats being pushed against one another to reduce their spacing as compared to their spacing in a roof closed position, and with a roof liner that is deformable and extends in an area located below the slats, at least when the roof is closed, with fasteners being provided that hold the roof liner against the slats at points that are regularly spaced for orderly folding when the roof is opened.
To create a visually attractive appearance, slatted sunroofs of this type are covered on the side facing the vehicle interior with a film that forms the roof liner, said film consisting of plastic in particular and possibly laminated with fabric or other materials. In known slatted sunroofs of this type, this roof liner is deliberately fastened to the slats of the slatted sunroof at points which produce an orderly fold pattern in the roof liner when the slats are pushed together, said slats being raised adjacent to one another. In particular this applies to a fold pattern in which the folds of the roof liner extend into the spaces formed between the raised adjacent slats.
The roof liner is attached to the slats by hook-and-loop fasteners or with adhesive tapes or with adhesive applied in strips.
The slats of such a slatted sunroof usually consist of sheet steel, sheet aluminum, extrusion-molded aluminum sections, and plastic. In contrast to this arrangement, the roof liner as a rule consists of plastic film. Consequently, the slats and roof liner normally exhibit different thermal expansion behavior. As a result of the above-described fastening of the roof liner to the slats, at temperatures that differ from the temperature prevailing at the time the roof liner was attached to the slats, different degrees of thermal expansion can create undesired fold patterns in the roof liner. In addition, different temperatures prevail in the slats, which are exposed to the exterior of the vehicle, than in the roof liner, which is exposed to the vehicle interior, and this can also result in an undesired fold pattern because of the different degrees of thermal expansion involved.
The present invention relates to the problem of providing a slatted sunroof of the species recited at the outset in which no fold formation in the roof liner takes place because of different degrees of thermal expansion in the slats and the roof liner.
This problem is solved according to the invention by a slatted sunroof, wherein the fasteners each have a retaining element on the slat side and a retaining element on the roof liner side, said retaining elements being connected with one another so that they are movable with respect to one another, with the retaining elements on the slat side being fastened to the slats and the retaining elements on the roof liner side being fastened to the roof liner.
The invention is based on the general idea of fastening the roof liner to the slats in way that permits relative movement between the roof liner and the slats. It is proposed for this purpose to use fasteners formed by two structural elements that are displaceable with respect to one another, with one element being fastened to the slats and the other element being fastened to the roof liner. This separation into two separate elements makes it possible to make the element to be fastened to the slats from the same material as the slats themselves, or from a material with a thermal expansion behavior that is approximately the same as that of the slat material, and to make the element to be fastened to the roof liner from the same material as the roof liner or from a material that undergoes approximately the same degree of thermal expansion as the roof liner material. In this way, no relative movements caused by temperature changes in the roof liner and in the slats and/or caused by temperature differences between the roof liner and the slats can occur between the roof liner and the element of the fasteners fastened thereto or between a slat and the element of the fasteners fastened thereto. All relative movements take place between the two elements of the fasteners and are compensated there by the connection formed between those elements of the fasteners that permit relative movement. Undesired folding caused by extreme temperature conditions is therefore no longer possible over a wide temperature range.
In one especially advantageous embodiment of the slatted sunroof according to the invention, the retaining element of the fasteners on the slat side can be in the form of a wire or rod that runs transversely to the sliding direction of the slats and is fastened to the individual slats, not over their entire lengths but especially pointwise at a plurality of locations distributed over the length of the rod. The retaining element of the fasteners on the roof liner side is designed as tubular loops into which the corresponding rod is inserted. At the point where the rod is fastened to the respective slat, the loop has cutouts facing the slats, through which cutouts the rod is connected to the respective slat.
Embodiments of the loop fastened to the roof liner and suggestions for fastening the rods to the slats, as well as additional advantages and important features of the slatted sunroof according to the invention, are provided in the claims, drawings, and the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.